President's Column - Reflections

By Diane M. Becker, RN, MPH, ScD

As my year as President of SELA draws to a close, I reflect on our progress. From its inception five years ago under the leadership and vision of Dr. Virgil Brown, to the present, the mission of SELA has been to offer a multidisciplinary forum to improve lipid management and practice in our region of the country. We have exceeded even our most enthusiastic dreams and rapidly become a cohesive and established professional organization. Our annual scientific meeting provides a unique opportunity for academicians, clinicians, physicians, nurses, health educators, nutritionists and others interested in state-of-the-art lipid management to network and exchange ideas, expertise, and emerging science. SELA's model is to foster regional professional growth and to optimize care for patients with lipid disorders. Under the leadership of Drs. Virgil Brown, John Guyton, and Maria Lopes-Virella and SELA Board members, this year brings the promise of a new national extension of this model, The National Lipid Association (NLA). In November of 2000, the SELA Board of Directors met to discuss dissemination of our successful initiatives for professionals and patients to a national level. There was an overwhelming interest in a national organization of regional affiliates that could potentially collaborate to address broader initiatives. Leaders in lipid science attended our first organized meeting, which took place August 2001 in Charleston, South Carolina as part of the Annual SELA Scientific Forum. There was considerable optimism for the viability of a new national professional organization dedicated to fostering the clinical practice of lipid management while preserving the independent and unique role of regional organizations such as SELA. The second NLA organizational meeting took place on May 18, 2002 in Atlanta, under the leadership of Dr. Virgil Brown, the Founding President of SELA. The discussion advanced to the genesis of bylaws, organizational infrastructure, and ways to include participatory but independent organizations such as the Preventive Cardiology Nurses Association (PCNA). Participants at the NLA organizational meeting in Atlanta included Eliot Brinton, MD, Phoenix, AZ, W. Virgil Brown, MD, Atlanta, GA, David Capuzzi, MD, Philadelphia, PA, Carlos Dujovne, MD, Overland, KS, Barbara Fletcher, RN, PCNA Representative, Jacksonville, FL, Anne Goldberg, MD, St Louis, MO, John Guyton, MD, Durham, NC, Penny Kris-Etherton, LD,PhD, University Park, PA, Maria Lopes-Virella, MD, PhD, Charleston, SC, Neil J. Stone, MD, Chicago, IL, Karol Watson, MD, PhD, Los Angeles, CA, and Paul Ziajka, MD of the Florida Lipid Association. Representatives of most lipid-related industrial enterprises were also present. One of the major goals of the NLA will be to examine how to structure national and regional educational programs that lead ultimately to lipid certification, both for individuals and clinical practices. SELA remains strongly supportive of the NLA and will continue to encourage its growth at our Annual Scientific Sessions in Williamsburg.

SELA's new CD-ROM continuing education program for physicians, nurses, dietitians, and others will soon be available and offers an innovative amalgam of slide presentations of the new ATP III Guidelines, interactive case studies, and direct links to the full ATP III Report, the National Obesity Expert Panel Report, and other relevant national guidelines. The CD-ROM will be mailed to all members in August and will also be available at the Annual Scientific Forum in Williamsburg. Under the direction of Committee Chairperson, Dr. Vera Bittner, University of Alabama at Birmingham, this CD-ROM program was designed to go beyond traditional cholesterol education programs and offers an exciting and novel interactive approach to continuing education.

Members will also be receiving a new membership directory on CD-ROM. The directory will connect us as a lipid community and is produced in such a novel way that we can update our own information and update the contents periodically online. The membership directory will also have extras like adobe acrobat reader and the shockwave plug-in necessary to view SELA CE/CME offerings online.

This year SELA has worked closely with the American Heart Association's coalition efforts to support The Cholesterol Screening Coverage Act of 2001, co-sponsored by Congressmen Camp (R-MI) and Jefferson (D-LA). The House version of the Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2002 passed in the early summer of this year and includes support for cholesterol screening. Visit our website at www.lipid.org to learn more about the work of the coalition and the legislation. Work on Capitol Hill by this ad hoc coalition will continue as this legislation moves through the Senate.

I would like to thank the past Presidents of SELA, and the President-elect, Dr. John R. Crouse, all of whom exchange ideas freely via email and continue to move the goals of the organization forward. It is also an honor to recognize the very hard work of Dr. Bittner on the CD-ROM program. Her commitment has been unwavering . Drs. Lopes-Virella and Goldberg, founding SELA Board members, continue to be dedicated to superb work, as evidenced by their co-editorship on The Lipid Spin this year. Members of the SELA Board are among the most dedicated professionals with whom I have ever worked in any organization. SELA is replete with more than its share of special hard-working people and it has been my distinct pleasure to serve as President.

Dr. Becker is Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.